Product displays, such as merchandisers, are frequently used in retail environments to display products for sale. It is advantageous for these product displays to be configured to provide consumers easy access to the displayed product, to display the product cleanly and in an unobstructed manner so that product brands are readily visible and the store shelves look full or stocked at most times (also known as fronting), and to facilitate easy installation and restocking or reloading by store employees. To accomplish this, many different forms of displays have been developed that are front-facing or self-facing. For example, there are shelf management systems that mount directly on the shelf, bar mounted systems that replace shelves and suspend from a bar, grid-mounted systems that replace shelves and suspend from a grid system. In addition, there are often two versions of these systems: one gravity fed and the other utilizing a biased pusher or paddle to push the stocked product forward as items are removed from a shelf. Another benefit of these types of displays is that they are typically setup to keep the inventory as new and fresh as possible and to sell off all existing inventory before allowing newer or replacement product to be purchased (e.g., a concept often referred to as “first in first out” or FIFO). Without these systems, retailers and/or product suppliers are forced to spend much more time and resources (and therefore money) on monitoring, organizing and fronting displayed product and typically end up doing so in a less efficient manner with less desirable results, such as having newer product stocked in front of older product increasing the likelihood of spoilage or product failing to be sold by the “sell by” date.
One problem with conventional merchandisers is that while they do not require to be manually faced, they do require employees to continuously check the product displays to determine if restocking is necessary. If they are not regularly checked they may run out of product, which results in lost sales.
While some conventional merchandisers have a physical flag attached to the merchandiser that will alert store associates when restocking is necessary, they require complex mechanical means to be visually apparent. In addition, such systems typically require retailers to purchase an entire new line of product displays that have such technology integrated therein.
Accordingly, it has been determined that a need exists for improved low product indicators for display merchandisers that overcome the aforesaid problems and shortcomings and improved methods relating to same.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale or to include all features, options or attachments. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.